Created By: Debbie Hohulin, Gibson City Melvin Sibley Elementary School (Gibson City, IL)
Grade Level: 1st
Content Area: Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts, Technology
Database Integration: Students will
learn about the TDC
database, and use it for a final project.

Procedures:

At the carpet, read
a fictional book about Abraham Lincoln. Then ask, how do we know
he was real and not make-believe? How can we really know? (Can
use any famous person/ or well-known event).

Move to LCD projector.
Show different aspects of Abraham Lincoln's life. Real pictures
of him (as a boy, a man, as president, his family, etc.)

B. Hands-on Activity: In groups.

Tell them you had found
other types of primary sources that prove that Abraham was real.
Pass sources out to each of your groups and discuss how this helps
us know that Abraham Lincoln was real.

Photographs of real
artifacts he owned...tools, books, home, etc.

Photographs of letters
he had written.

Photographs of maps
of where he lived, worked, went to school.

Photographs of articles
in newspapers written during the time he was alive.

Have each group glue
the photograph of the primary source on a large poster board and
label it (letter, artifact, map, newspaper article) and then have
each person in the group write down ways this primary source proves
Abraham Lincoln really lived.

C. Wrap-Up:

Call over to carpet area. Ask for each group to share their poster.

Collect all posters. Hang up in the classroom.

Point back to large poster paper and say: Some other primary sources
are letters, newspaper articles, maps and photographs. Write these
down as you say them on the large Primary Source Poster. You may have
the actual letter or newspaper article, or any of these, or you may
have photographs of them, like we have from the TDC
site.

Assessment:

Students will be able to write about and orally describe the other types
of primary sources: letters, photographs, maps, and newspaper articles
and how they can help verify that something is true. They will continue
to be exposed to the terms: artifacts, letters, newspsper articles, photographs
and maps as primary sources and the idea that websites, like the TDC
are places they can go to find primary sources.